“Every heart has two parts, the part that pumps and the part that loves.”
15 Bookers met at the home of Kathleen Mackey to discuss this moving story of a man with a painful past, a little girl with a doubtful future, and a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts.
Business:
Many thanks to Jane and Bookers for the shoutout for my latest novel, Wings Against The Wind, winning the Literary Titan Book Award. It’s like validating the effort spent in finding the right word to create the emotion of a scene or developing unique characters that readers would like to share a meal with…or put behind bars! Speaking of “hearts” … mine is full.About the Author:
Charles Martin, born November 1969 in the South, grew up in Jacksonville, Florida where he developed a love for fishing and canoeing on the St. John’s River, and currently resides with his wife and three sons close to the river where he spent his childhood. After switching in college from accounting to English, he earned a B.A. from Florida State, followed by a M.A. in Journalism, and a Ph.D. in Communications from Regent University. He began writing at 15 using it as a means to express his thoughts and feelings, receiving 86 rejections before his first novel, The Dead Don’t Dance, was published when he was 27 and The Mountain Between Us was adapted into a film in 2017. He is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author whose works explore themes of faith, love, and redemption touting a catalogue of over twenty fiction and non-fiction books. In a Q&A session he emphasized the importance of storytelling and its power to impact lives, believing success is not just about personal achievements, but also about relationships and the influence one has on others. He became a writer as a teenager because he didn’t have the skills to articulate out loud what he was experiencing…from girls, to sports, to grades. When asked what advice he would give to aspiring writers, he said 90% of success is showing up every day, sitting in a chair and writing…he starts his day with a blank page no matter how great or terrible the day before was. He speaks of receiving an email from a mom whose son was in federal prison and although he was doing okay, he told her after reading What If It’s True, for the first time in his life, he didn’t feel like a number, surrendering his life to Christ after reading it…Charles says he would give up every accolade to receive a message like this…to him this is what defines success.
Synopsis:
When Crickets Cry is less about a doctor performing life-saving heart transplants and more about the complicated relationship between his own heart and his profession. The narrative begins on a tranquil town square in the north Georgia mountains where a vivacious seven-year-old girl named Annie with a congenital heart defect operates a lemonade stand to raise money for her medical treatments. Her spirit is infectious, yet a visible scar on her chest is evidence of her physical and emotional struggles. One day a mysterious bearded stranger stops by her stand and is immediately drawn to the little girl. His name is Reese, a former heart surgeon who has retreated from his career after a personal tragedy involving the death of his wife, Emma, who also suffered from a heart ailment. He lives in seclusion, haunted by guilt over her death, spending his days rowing and restoring old boats with his brother-in-law, Charlie. As the story unfolds, Reese and Annie’s lives become intertwined when a bread truck careens around the corner as Annie was chasing the paper money that blew off her lemonade stand and into the intersection. Reese got to her first…her eyes were closed; her tongue had collapsed into her airway and was choking her. He immediately resumed Doctor mode stabilizing the little girl until the ambulance arrived. Their heartwarming connection continued to grow throughout the novel creating a tale of two individuals burdened by past and present challenges…the story conveying that even in moments of despair, hope, healing, and profound human bonds are possible.
The title:
It’s explained in chapter 25 when Annie and Reese walk by a box of chirping crickets on the dock that suddenly grows silent. Annie explained they were crying and you could only hear them if you listen closely…but you don’t hear them with your ears…you hear them with your heart. Reese asks why they are crying…Annie says because they know if she can’t find a heart, and her aunt can’t find someone to put it in, and she doesn’t stay healthy until that time, and they don’t find the money to pay for the transplant…she won’t be there next year to talk to them and they know it’s their life for mine.” Reese asks how they know all that…” because I tell them… dummy.” The title serves as a metaphor for grief and vulnerability reminding readers that pain exists universally but offers a poignant message that miracles can emerge from life’s most challenging circumstances.
Rating System:
0 – aka The Susan – wouldn’t recommend to my worst enemy. (Susan is special – no one else has a rating named after them!!)
1 – put your money back in the piggy bank
2 – borrow, don’t buy
3 – good beach read
4 – borders on your favorite read ever
5 – order now, include in your will
Bookers had mixed reviews on this selection, but no one (thankfully) rated it a zero, although one wished she had put her money back in the piggy bank as it wasn’t her cup of tea and didn’t have any con men in the plot. (LOL) One rated it as 2 as she had not had a chance to read the book and literally borrowed it at the meeting and our lone 3 thought it dragged a bit. One Booker called in her assessment as she couldn’t be at the meeting saying she would rate it 4.5 as she loved it. The other 4 rating was because of its predictability. Our five fives have contacted their attorneys to add it to their assets…emotional depth, relatable and well-developed characters, the story both heartbreaking and heartwarming – one Booker even saying she and her husband were reading it at the same time and although outside of his preferred genre, he also loved it…so we can officially count him as number six in the five category.
Discussion:
Character Profiles:
Simple moments turned profound amidst tragedy as the author wrote each character with a degree of pain and healing experienced through love and loss but with miracles threaded through each of their lives. His goal was for readers to walk away with a renewed appreciation for the fragility of life.
Jonathan “Reese” Mitchell is one of the most talented heart surgeons in the world – his desire beginning with his love for Emma, his childhood best friend and eventual wife but because he couldn’t save her life, he disappeared from the medical world, living like a recluse, with only his blind brother-in-law, Charlie, knowing his real identity and he was never bitter about Reese’s inability to save his sister. Young Annie displays wisdom and optimism beyond her years and despite her dire medical condition, she’s a beacon of light for those around her. Jane Shaw was impressed with the child’s attitude citing a personal knowledge of another young girl who underwent several heart transplants, and she was always upbeat and hopeful much like Annie’s character. Aunt Cindy has sole responsibility for her niece’s welfare, struggling both emotionally and financially as she faces the severity of Annie’s medical condition. Minor characters, Davis, “the Monk” who owns the local bar and Termite, the young drifter both add another layer of faith, companionship, and redemption to the plot. We talked about how odd and humorous it was that a cardiologist ate greasy cheeseburgers every day…couldn’t you just sense his arteries clogging…and by the way if you are up for that type of experience daily there is a food truck in the back parking lot of Grooms that will help you on your artery journey!
As we know, a Kirkus Review is seen as the gold standard. “Deep schmaltz in the Bible Belt” To a few it was overly emotional in certain scenes, as the Kirkus reviewer commented.
We talked about the moments in the book that moved us and/or provoked a strong reaction. “Time of death 11:11 p.m.” won in many of our hearts and I thought I might need the paddles to restart my own heart. Reese’s agonizing reaction looking at Annie “laying still, her chest a cold, open wound holding a lifeless heart.” All his pent-up emotion, his guilt, and the “muffled pain” surrounding Emma’s death resurfaced realizing there “were some sins which he would never quit paying.”
Then three pages later – six weeks passed and we can all breathe again with a happy-ever-after ending that we were rooting for!
Reese always wore Emma’s engraved medallion around his neck and in the end, he put it around Annie’s neck, resting just above her scar. The message, “Above all else, guard your heart…for it is the wellspring of life” was the underlying theme and message of the book.
Crickets take center stage in the novel often seen as symbols of good luck and prosperity, their chirping seen as a positive omen in many cultures. In literary contexts, they can represent a moral compass or an inner voice. As in Disney’s adaptation of Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket is appointed to guide the wooden puppet on his journey to becoming a real boy. Crickets and their persistent chirping in nighttime settings can evoke serenity, reflections or nostalgia but they can also foreshadow mystery or suspense…but their quiet presence draws attention to small details, inner reflections, or external forces beyond the character’s control as witnessed in Chapter 25 when Annie explains why crickets cry.
Last month we shared “horse stories” and this month I’ve also got a cricket story. For some unknown reason I have a fear of any kind of hopping bug….grasshoppers and crickets terrify me. We were at a high school football game when a black cloud of swarming crickets hovered overhead. I nearly had a heart attack until we could get home. Later in the week we arrived at the parking lot of our Tom Thumb and the entire building looked like it was painted black. The noise was deafening. Did I get out of the car. Absolutely not!
We talked about the significance of the lemonade stand in the story, and what might it symbolize regarding Annie’s character or her situation, and she also wore a yellow dress and bow in her hair? In literature, lemonade and lemons symbolize resilience, transformation, and the duality of life, representing both sweetness and bitterness. The phrase when life gives you lemons, make lemonade illustrates transforming challenges into opportunities. The inclusion of the yellow dress and Annie’s lemonade stand served a dual purpose and was a deliberate touch by an astute author.
The heart, both physically and metaphorically plays a central role. Reese tells Termite that without the heart, nothing else matters. Love is not a tool, neither is a woman’s heart…without that she’ll mean little more to you than the remote control for the television.” “The heart derives no benefit from the blood it pumps making it the most unselfish of organs…it is also the most courageous and faithful.”
The ending:
It centers on healing, redemption, and the transformative power of love and forgiveness. Reese reveals his true identity to Annie performing a successful heart transplant – both literal and emotional healing…reconciling with his guilt and opening the door for a relationship with Cindy. Charlie forgives him; Annie’s survival serves as a metaphor for renewal, showing even in the face of tragedy, love and compassion can restore broken lives. Readers are left with a sense of closure and optimism – the overall message, hope, forgiveness, and love are capable of healing even the deepest wounds as Reese and Annie are facing a future with courage and an unbreakable bond.
Happy Reading,
JoDee
No comments:
Post a Comment